


Love Is Here To Stay

by alisha_mendelsohn



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, F/M, First Dance, Happy Ending, One Shot, Post-Season/Series 07
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:40:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25621537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alisha_mendelsohn/pseuds/alisha_mendelsohn
Summary: Daisy needs a dance lesson before an upcoming wedding, so who does she turn to but a certain tall blue shirt handsome chivalrous square of an Agent? ;)
Relationships: Skye | Daisy Johnson/Daniel Sousa
Comments: 18
Kudos: 88





	Love Is Here To Stay

**Author's Note:**

> Look, I’m the ‘Everyone Lives, No One Dies!’ kind of a person so let’s just assume that this is a distant future after the series finale and everyone is aliiiiive!!! also, special shoutout to @agl03 for her BBG theories and letting me use the same name that she had chosen!

It started off with an innocent question, one that Daisy had been turning over and over again in her mind for so long, trying to find the best way to word her request… of course she ended up blurting it out of nowhere when the two of them finally had a moment alone together. 

“Would you teach me how to dance?” _Seriously? No lead up to it whatsoever? Get a grip Daisy._ She mentally whacked herself when she saw the surprised look on his face. 

“Umm… did you mean… right now?” Daniel asked her, wondering where the question had come from.

“Is that a yes?” A part of her still managed to be surprised every time he just… was there for her… no matter what. 

“Well,” he crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, looking at her curiously, “it's been far too long since I've had the opportunity to dance, but I was pretty good at it back in the day.” 

Of course Daisy had taken that into consideration when she'd tried to find a less blunt and direct approach to asking Daniel about this… given everything that had happened… and yet, the words had slipped out of her mouth before she could stop herself. She winced a little, but she knew that he didn't mean it that way when he replied to her. Just as he'd known she would have thought about the past. 

“Right- no, I know that… I mean I was just thinking about the upcoming wedding and how we'd probably need to dance. A little. Maybe? And I know the basics of it kinda…” Daisy started to ramble; how was it possible that after everything they'd been through together, she still managed to get tongue-tied around him? 

Daniel chuckled as he took a few steps forward and stood in front of her, looking down at that face he'd come to know so well in all his time… new time… here. With her. With the rest of the team. 

“I'd be honored to teach you how to dance, Daisy.” His voice was soft as he reached a hand to brush a stray lock of hair, tucking it behind her ear. “Although… I do have to ask, why me?”

Daisy glanced up at Daniel, meeting his gaze and felt that familiar flutter in her heart; the last time they’d been this close… well… there was no time loop now… and she'd told him about the kiss. Since then, they'd never really… had a chance to try it again, but over the past several months, Daisy opened herself up to him more and more and they'd gotten… close. Now that everything was said and done, with all the free time they had on their hands, it seemed as if everyone spent every single waking minute handling the wedding preparations. And that was what she and Daniel were doing this afternoon- or they were until now. 

“I figured that, out of everyone else on the ship I could ask, you seemed to be the most obvious choice as to who would know how to dance.” It would hopefully come across as Daisy telling him that she'd thought of asking the others before… but honestly… he'd been the first who came to mind when she realized that she needed dance lessons.

“Hmm… that's good reasoning I suppose.” Daniel mused out loud, “I am glad that you thought to ask me.”

“Me too.” She replied with a soft smile.

“So. Now that we have that out of the way, shall we begin?” 

“Oh. Yeah. Sure.”

Daisy knew she needed to stop daydreaming, especially since she’d been the one to come to him for help. They'd never really given a name to… whatever it was that they were… and yet, she found that not having labels and definitions didn't change the fact that she and Daniel were spending more time together, getting to know each other better. With no alien robots trying to kill them, no death defying odds to beat, no end-of-the-world scenarios to stop. It was just… them… and all the time they had.

Daniel stepped away for a minute to find the iPod that Deke had helped him figure out; or was it an iPad? iPhone? He could never be sure, everything looked more or less the same to him, but after almost a year of traveling through time, Daniel knew his way around future technology better now. He found a song that made him pause - it was one he knew all too well. 

“Love is here to stay, huh?” Daisy mused when she heard the song play.

“You know it?” Daniel couldn’t help but raise a curious eyebrow at her; this was something new he had learned about her.

“Well, the Sinatra version yeah… I do _know_ classic music.” 

“That’s good to know.” He paused as if he was about to say something else, but of course there was a dance lesson to be had. "Right, so first things first, our positions." He turned back to Daisy, getting the two of them in the proper poses - one hand of his on her shoulder blade, placing one of hers on his shoulder, and then… he held out his free hand. 

Daisy looked at him once more and smiled as she slid her hand into his. "So what do we do now?" 

“The key to every dance is counting the steps. It's all in the footwork; the waltz uses what is called the ‘box step.’ When I take a step forward with one foot, you step back. One, two, three. Like this.” He started to lead Daisy in a simple trial run to see how much she knew. 

For the first run of the song, Daniel spent several minutes teaching Daisy about the basics of waltzing, she did know how to ballroom dance, which helped them fall into a comfortable sync of pace soon enough and even though the music kept changing as he adjusted their positions a little, once Daisy felt ready to give it a shot, she went back and played the Frank Sinatra cover of _‘Love Is Here To Stay’_ once again and fell into step with him. She hadn’t managed to step on his toes even once and she considered that more than simply just beginner's luck and more of having a good dance teacher.

“Did you have many opportunities to dance… in your time?" Daisy was curious, she knew that Daniel had a past, she did too… but… none of those relationships had felt like this. Not in a very long time.

“Before the war, a little. I don't think I found the right dance partner though, at least not then.”

“And after?” She breathed out softly. 

“Well, I don't think anyone was really lining up to dance with me after the war.” He said with a soft chuckle, trying to see if he could make her smile, but her reaction caught him off guard. 

“I would have.” She said it without thinking; just as she had when she'd asked him to teach her. Daisy didn't need to think twice before she answered him though. She meant it. “I mean, it would have maybe been a different kind of a dance. Slower, possibly. But I'd have danced with you back then.”

Whether it was the sincerity in her voice which Daniel didn't doubt for a second, or the fierce determination in her eyes that he had come to know and love- he stopped the dance abruptly. The music was still playing on in the background, but for all he knew, it was just him and Daisy together in this moment. He was looking at her in a way that he hadn't before - at least not one that he remembered; but she did. Daisy had seen Daniel's exact expression before, he had looked at her the way he was now after she'd kissed him in that time loop. As if he couldn't quite believe that that had happened between them.

“How?” He asked. “How would the slow dance have been?” 

Daisy knew what he was asking. It wasn't like him to be anything less than a gentleman; which came with being a man from the 40s that she found to be endearing. He wanted her to be sure of what she wanted, and in that moment, Daisy had the answer. She reached for the hand that was on her back and placed it on her waist, bringing his second hand on the other side as well, while at the same time she wrapped her arms around his neck and closed the distance between them, resting her head on his shoulder.

“Something like this.” She whispered into his ear and slowly started to sway with him.

At some point the music had changed to another track that Daniel had heard in his time, _“I Only Have Eyes For You”_ but this was a different version of it. They stayed standing for the most part, just swaying together in the same place; Daisy’s eyes were closed, her head buried in the crook of his neck now, she could feel him tightening his hold around her… as if he never wanted to let her go… and if she were to say it out loud, that she didn’t want him to let go… Daisy was still getting used to having Daniel being there for her, even when she didn’t know it herself. Neither one of them really knew how long they danced together, but once the song ended, she opened her eyes and pulled back, just far enough for her to find herself looking at Daniel, staring into those soft brown eyes that she’d gotten so used to seeing every day in her life. 

“I’d like to kiss you, Daisy.” Daniel didn’t even really think about saying anything else at that moment, he just thought he should let her know what was on his mind.

“Okay…” She may not have had anyone say it before they’d kissed, but even as she pursed her lips together, Daisy could hardly complain about this; after all, Daniel was as chivalrous as a man could be and she loved that about him.

“Is that a yes?” He echoed her words to him from earlier, not quite sure if she was agreeing to it or not.

“Yes. It’s a yes.” At that Daisy couldn’t help but giggle and as he leaned down to kiss her, she wrapped her arms around him again. 

This was technically their second kiss, although Daniel was the one to make the first move this time, Daisy knew without a doubt, that this was a kiss they both would remember.

* * *

The wedding had been a wonderful ceremony, with lots of laughter and tears all around, it was a new beginning for Mack and Elena, and for the rest of the team as well - they’d kept the invites to a minimum, a family affair with Jemma, Fitz, their little girl Mackenzie, Enoch and Deke, May and Coulson, Daisy and Daniel, Hunter and Bobbi whom Fitz had reached out to privately, as a way to surprise not just the happy couple but the others as well. Later that evening, the wedding party had moved outside of the Lighthouse for the reception and in the midst of all the dancing and singing - the latter courtesy of Deke who was still in touch with his Deke Squad - and even though Daisy had gotten the chance to show off her newly learned dance moves, after a while, she decided to take a breather; kicking off her shoes, she retreated to one of the tables and sat down with a drink, content to watch as Deke danced with his… mom… it was a little strange to wrap her head around it seeing as how for the moment he was ‘Uncle Deke’ to the kid, less confusing that way.

“Mind if I join you?” Daniel’s voice broke through her reverie and she glanced up to see him by her side.

Daisy remembered quite literally staring when she’d seen him show up that morning to escort her down the aisle dressed in a tuxedo. And now that everyone had let their hair down so to speak, she saw that he’d left his jacket somewhere behind, his bowtie was undone and he’d unbuttoned his shirt a little.

“Mmhmm.” She simply nodded her head and waited until he sat down next to her before slowly releasing the breath that she’d unknowingly held. 

“Today reminded me of the last time I was at a wedding.” He started to say, drawing Daisy’s attention away from the dance floor as she turned to listen to him; over the past few weeks, he’d started talking to her a little more about his time and she never failed to be captivated. “A buddy of mine got hitched before we all shipped out… maybe a month or so before… and it kind of felt like this, just… happy.”

“What happened after… the war?” She couldn’t help but ask; sometimes his stories had a happy ending and sometimes they didn’t.

“He came back, a different man, I suppose we all were changed in some way or the other as you know; but yeah… he was one of the lucky ones. Last I remember, he and his wife were parents to a baby boy with another one on the way.” Daniel smiled to himself, lost in the memory.

Daisy knew that he never regretted getting a second chance at life; everything that Daniel had fought for, died for, he continued to do everything that he could even now, having decided a long time ago that he was going to stay on with the team, but there were days when the past would catch up to him and he’d get nostalgic for the friends, the family, the others that he had left behind… instead of saying something, she simply placed her hand on top of his and gave it a small squeeze. To remind him that he wasn’t alone; and though he hadn’t said it in as many words, Daniel was grateful to have Daisy to pull him back when he needed.

“So… I’d say that you were pretty good out on the dance floor tonight.” He said to her, changing the topic.

“I had a good teacher.” Was her reply as she watched him carefully, wondering if he was okay

“I wonder though,” he nodded over to everyone else who were either dancing or talking animatedly with each other by the bar. “Fitz doesn't seem like the dance lessons type of a guy, Deke would probably not know the more traditional styles of the waltz. Mack was a little busy with his own preparations and Coulson may know a thing or do about dancing but-”

Feeling a faint blush creeping up on her cheeks, Daisy knew exactly where he was going with this. “Okay okay, fine. You win.” She sighed and rested her head on his shoulder, mumbling softly knowing full well that he could hear her. “I didn't think to ask anyone else that day.”

“I thought that may have been it.” 

“You did?” Daisy frowned a little as she looked up at him, “But… you didn’t say anything…”

“I didn’t want to put you on the spot like that, and besides, I know for sure now don’t I?” He cupped her cheek and kissed her forehead. 

Their moment was suddenly interrupted when Mackenzie ran up to the two of them and tugged on Daisy’s hand, she wanted ‘Aunt Daisy’ to dance with her next. Enoch had followed her and was about to apologize but Daniel waved him off.

“Go, have a dance with Kenzie, I’ll be there soon.” He said to them and watched as Daisy picked the little girl up in her arms and whispered something in her ears, causing her to laugh. 

As Daniel stayed at the table, he couldn’t help but glance over to where Mack and Elena were dancing together and he wondered… not for the first time and certainly not the last… that it was time he let go of the past so that he could focus on the future. His and Daisy’s. Who knew, maybe one day… 

“We’ll see.” He whispered softly to himself as he got up and walked over to where Daisy was dancing with Mackenzie and joined them. For now, they were happy and he couldn’t have asked for a better family by his side, nor a better partner to dance with and to have in his life.


End file.
